AUGUST 15, 2008

An interesting development

The FIA announced recently that it was going to start a new Formula 2 championship and there was speculation that this would be based on the Formula Master championship, which runs with the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

This made a lot of sense.

However, it seems that there is now some new interest in the hitherto obscure series. And, amazingly, it seems that there is a plan being discussed to run Formula Master as GP3 at selected Formula 1 races.

The big question, no doubt, is who will own the championship. It is currently owned and run by Italian firm N. Technology but money talks (loudly) and it is entirely possible that the partners in the Formula One group might invest in buying the series and turning it into GP3. The GP2 series was acquired not that long ago by the group and to add GP3 would seem a logical step, particularly if it sees off the threat of a Formula 2 series. For N. Technology it is simply a question of which is the better option: a bid for the FIA Formula 2 contract and regular income in the years ahead, or a big payment from the Formula One group. There are probably other companies that could build F2 cars along the same lines, but they might not be in a position to do that in the time available.

If this goes ahead, then F1 races will soon have GP2 and GP3. All that would be missing from the F1 schedule would be GP1.

Or perhaps one is supposed to think that F1 might one day be missing from the GP1 schedule.